A blog about life and knitting

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Vacation (Long post)

It's been a while since my last post. I thought I posted before going on vacation, but evidently not. So, I took a little vacation time last week. Not much knitting accomplished, but I did get to enjoy some time with the family.

We went to the farm on Friday (that would be 2 Fridays ago). G had been at the Lake of the Ozarks all week, so he came home on Friday and stayed home with the animals. The kids and I arrived at the farm early Friday evening, unpacked the van and went straight to my Grandpa's (GGP) house to visit and see the puppies. One of the farm dogs, Dot, is a "puppy mill" she has had 7 litters since she came to the farm. This litter is 6 girls and 1 boy puppy, and they are sooooooooo cute. We spent about an hour with playful puppies and then another 30-40 minutes cuddling drowsy puppies. (I took LOTS of pictures, but haven't got them uploaded to Flickr yet. I'll do that tonight.)

Saturday, we went on a "bear hunt" (known to us adults as a hike). We started out at about 11:00 and walked along the "bear hunt trail" and then along the riverbed. We saw lots of beautiful flowers and scenery, and again I took LOTS of pictures (see note above). I'm not sure how far we walked, but we arrived back at the house at about 1:00 hot, sweaty and hungry. So, we had a little lunch and then went to look for the new colts. We only found one, I'm not sure where they others were, but there are 3 right now. (Imagine a picture of a colt here)

Saturday night was the 2nd night of the Fredericktown Knights of Columbus Rodeo. The kids LOVED the rodeo. I had a good time as well, you know, cowboys and their jeans are always good entertainment, and they had goats. (Imagine a picture of cute goats here) We had a blast, unfortunately, G seperated his shoulder on Saturday night, as a result of a tumble down the basment stairs. (He and the dog share the blame, excited dog and tipsy G make for a bad combination on the basement stairs.)

So Sunday morning at about 5am I got a call from him telling me that he had just gotten home from the ER, but he was OK, so go back to sleep. (easy for him to say, he had Vicodan) I let the kids sleep in since they were up late at the rodeo, and we ate breakfast with GGP. The Puppy lovefest ensued after breakfast and while I was packing up the van to go back home. When I finally had the van packed up, I drove up to GGP's house to say farewell and pick the kids up. L was cuddling the only puppy who was out. (The puppies sleep under the deck) She almost convinced me that we should take a puppy home with us, until I realized that the puppy she had was a girl puppy, and I don't do girl animals. L & B said a tearful goodbye to the puppy and piled into the car and we headed for home.

The remainder of the week was spent hanging out at home and getting ready for school. I had an interview for a new job on Monday and accepted their offer on Friday, so on August 22, I will start a new job. More on this later, but I really am excited.

I think that's enough for now. Oh, the only knitting accomplished was that I had to rip out about half of the left front of Dolly and reknit it as I was not paying attention and was decreasing at a different rate than on the right front. Doh! I hate when that happens. But I finished the left front and am now working on sleeve one. (Then all that's left is seaming, edging and finding buttons.) I also ripped out the half of the square that I was working on for the Tribute blanket. I think I will work on those tonight. I'd like to mail Annie 2 or 3 more this week.

Monday, July 25, 2005

"I'm melting, I'm melting...."

It's hot, I know it's summer in St. Louis, this should not be news. But I feel that it is noteworthy. It's 97F at 1pm with a heat index of 108F.

Not much to report here, finished two squares for Annie'sBlanket Project. Pictures to follow. They are still in the camera which is sitting on the dining room table at home. One is a snowflake lace pattern and the other is well, not my favorite yarn, but R thought it was cool, and it knit up VERY quickly so I sent it along this morning.

I think I have decided to just go and buy something for the baby who is waiting on Sunshine since I can't seem to make myself do more than one or two rows at a time. Really, I think I like the idea of a baby blanket much more than I actually like the baby blanket. I will finish it, maybe in time for K & L's baby (if it is a girl).

I've picked Dolly back up and am about half way through the left front, then sleeves, edging and finishing. Maybe since G is out of town for the week I will get it finished. I hope so....I'm not promising, because there are 3 small people who tend to require much more attention when daddy isn't home. He comes back Friday evening, but the small people and I will be on our way to the farm for a weekend of rodeoing and parking ourselves by the river. Every time I go to the farm, I take lots and lots of pictures, so there will be beautiful scenery to be viewed when I return. Believe it.

I suppose if I work hard enough, I could be finished with Dolly before the weekend and I could take a me project with me to the farm. I'd really like to do the big mobieus bag, but might just take the tank top stuff with me. Who knows???

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

I'm in love with the library

We have a great system here where you can go online from the comfort of your own home, request books from any branch and they "magically" appear at your local library. I have about 12 books on request. Maybe this is why I haven't been knitting as much.

I took the kids to pick up my latest book "Runny Babbit: A billy sook" by Shel Silverstein. I loved the "Sidewalk" books when I was a kid and I spotted this while at Borders and decided to borrow it from the library. The book is VERY cute and the kids thought it was funny, but the best part of the whole book is this ... (Please picture a cute rabbit sitting next to the following verse with knitting needles in hand, a wonky babbit ear swat and heater (hat & sweater) with one really slong leeve (long sleeve)...

"Runny's Hew NobbyRunny Babbit Knearned to lit,And made a swat and heater,And now he sadly will admitHe bight have done it metter."This book is definitely going to be a book I have to buy. Runny is so cute even if it is a little hard to make yourself read the words the way they are written.

Maybe I'll get some knitting done tonight. I'm on row 85 of Sunshine and haven't touched Dolly in a while. Oh well...

Monday, July 18, 2005

Tribute Blanket

Annie over at The Knitty Gritty is heading up an effort to make something positive out of this tradegy. I already signed up, but I think it will take many squares to make two nice blankets. Go here for all of the details. Let Annie know if you are interested in helping out.